:January 25th, XX47; Saturday.

:RESOLUTION BETWEEN PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST.

•~~~~•

Sage.

That was the first word that came to Joe's mind when he awoke- Sage. His eyes were closed, but whatever his face was pressed into distinctly smelled like Sage, and there was an arm around his shoulders and a hand resting on his waist and-

Oh, it probably was Sage, wasn't it?

The memories of the night before then came back to Joe, and he suppressed a sigh. So, Sage had come to his rescue to stop him from killing Oliver. That was... weird. Of course, a part of Joe certainly still wanted Oliver dead but maybe he could just try not to think about that. Or- think about it, healthily? Do whatever it was he was supposed to do when this happens. But it was still very odd that Sage had not only come to his rescue, but he stayed the night, and he was still there in that moment.

...Why did Sage even come to his rescue in the first place, though?

Joe made the decision to lift his head, and he saw Sage staring at the ceiling, eyebrows mildly furrowed. When Joe moved, though, Sage looked over at him, and they made eye contact for a solid three seconds before both shuffled away from each other, to opposite sides of the bed.

Joe suddenly missed cuddling with him.

"Sorry," he mumbled. Sage sighed.

"...I know. You've said it a million times."

Neither moved for a few moments. Joe glanced over at Sage, and then he looked at the door, and apparently Sage had the same idea, because both then stood up and started walking towards it. They made their way downstairs, a good few paces apart, Joe retreating to the couch while Sage stood in the foyer as soon as they were on the first floor. Joe's parents were standing in the kitchen.

"Oh, good morning, you two," Joe's dad said, glancing at the both of them. No one else said a word for a good while. Joe's parents poured cereal for both the teenagers and brought it over to them, and that was about it.

"...Do you know when your parents are coming to pick you up, Sage?" Joe's dad eventually spoke.

"Uh... soon? Probably."

"Okay. And- thank you so much, again."

"Yeah. It's fine."

Joe supposed that meant Sage didn't come and stop him on his own mind, which made sense. It was still weird he stayed the night, though. Maybe once he left there was still a way he could go sneak out and kill- but... no. He wanted to, but maybe he just shouldn't.

Sage was right. Murder isn't love.

Just then, a car honked outside, and Sage glanced out the window. "Oh, that's my dad, I think. So I'm gonna... yeah."

"Thank you again, Sage," Joe's father said from the kitchen as Sage picked up a bag off the floor, which seemed to be his.

"Uh-huh. Bye."

He was out the door, with only a quick glance back at Joe that didn't even last a second. Joe sighed, and once the car had driven away, both his parents made their way to the couch and sat down on either sides of their son.

"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Joe's dad asked. Joe shrugged.

"I don't know. Better?"

"Are you still having thoughts of..?"

"Well... yeah. But I- ...I know I shouldn't. So I won't. I guess it would be kind of stupid to."

Both his parents sighed quietly in relief. One of the phones in the room suddenly went off then, and Joe realized it was his, sitting on the coffee table.

"Oh, I didn't realize that was down here," he mumbled, going to pick it up.

"Yeah, you had it down here before we, uh, brought you up to your room," his dad said. Joe blinked and hesitated before picking it up.

"I'm allowed to have it, right-?"

"You're not grounded, of course."

"Okay."

Joe picked it up and looked at the notification, blinking a few times when he realized it was from Sage, of all people. He opened it up to discover his number had been unblocked so Sage could send him pictures of the work he missed in the classes they shared.

Joe texted back thanks, and the text was read and his number was not re-blocked. That was probably the best place he could stand with Sage in that present moment.

And that was... fine, actually.

•~~~~•

"Do you guys want anything specific for dinner, or..?"

Joe's dad stuck his head out of the kitchen and both Joe's father and Joe himself looked over from the couch.

"Not particularly. If we have leftovers that would be fine by me."

"Yeah, that's good."

"Okay, I'll see what we have."

Joe sighed to himself and leaned back, tapping his fingers on his leg. There wasn't really anything for the three of them to talk about anymore, was there? All of them were staying home from their responsibilities, and Joe was pretty sure his father's work didn't even want him to come in until everything got sorted.

But there was a knock at the door then, and everyone in the room could very very silently agree on one thing, and it was that a knock at their door could never mean anything good.

No one moved to open it, until Joe's father sighed and stood up, starting towards the door, glancing worriedly towards his family.

"Hello?"

"Logan Croft?"

A police officer, again.

"Yes, that is me?"

"Alright, sir, you're gonna need to come with us for a bit."

Joe's dad coughed from the kitchen, and then he came into the foyer, looking concerned.

"What-? What's going on?"

"I-I'm sorry, why do I need to..?"

"We just need to bring you in for a couple hours for interrogation and questioning regarding the murder of your mother, Mr. Croft."

"Well, I- uhm... alright. Am I going to be held overnight?"

"We'll call your house when we're done and tell your family what's going on."

"Oh. May I say goodbye to them?"

"Quickly."

"Thank you."

Joe's dad grabbed his husband's hand, and the two walked over to where Joe was, and Joe gave his father a quick hug, not entirely sure when he would see him again. When they were done hugging, Joe's parents hugged, and they hugged for probably a bit longer than the police officer would've liked them too, and by the time Joe's father finally pulled away and allowed the police officer to take him out to the police car in their driveway, Joe's dad was almost in tears.

The front door shut. Joe's dad and Joe were both silent. The former let out a shakey breath, and he looked down to the floor, running a hand through his hair.

"Uh... you okay, dad?"

"I-I'll be fine, Joe. I'm sure he'll be back soon enough. You don't need to worry."

"I'm not really that worried, I think you're the one that's freaking out."

"Well- I- yes, but- I- ...it'll be fine."

Joe's dad continued to stare at the ground. Joe pursed his lips, deciding to hug his dad, as that was something he seemed to need. It was a bit weird to hug his dad these days just because Joe was a few inches taller than him, but it was appreciated nonetheless.

"So... you, uh, you gonna be okay?"

Joe's dad sighed, forcing a small smile. "I'll be just fine, honey."

"Okay. Uh... I'm just gonna go chill upstairs, then."

"Alright. I'll be down here."

"Yep. Love you. I... I think he'll be fine, really."

Joe's dad smiled sadly. "Love you too, kiddo."

Joe turned around and went upstairs as his dad sat back on the couch. The former hesitated before going into his room, though, realizing that he didn't actually have anything to keep him occupied. Of course- he had a shit ton of work to do for school just because he was missing pretty much an entire week, but he didn't feel like messing with that.

Usually when something weird was going on with his parents he'd text Sage... but that probably wasn't the right option here.

He sighed, turned around, and instead stood in front of his parent's bedroom door. He really didn't have any right going in and looking through their stuff, but he was honestly just curious as to what was in there. He'd been in the room before, obviously, but he never had much time to look around.

The first thing he really noticed when he walked in was the desk, at the window opposite the door. There were some papers and a laptop and some pens, probably things his parents used for grading, and then there were pictures, older ones from when his parents were in their twenties- a selfie of his father and his Uncle Virgil, and a hung photo near the desk of both his parents in his grandparents' backyard.

On their bedside table was also a small photo from their wedding, and then opposite the bed was a dresser with a black-and-white picture of Joe's dad and Janus. There were yellow flowers in a vase next to it, ones that his dad watered frequently and kept alive, along with all the other plants in their house. Though- lately, a lot of those had been dying because his dad hadn't had time to water them, but the flower next to Janus's picture seemed to be thriving, as usual.

It was then that Joe noticed a small box underneath the dresser- a shoebox. He kneeled on the ground and pulled it out, hesitating to open it, but deciding to do so nonetheless. What he found inside was a bit surprising- firstly, there were some simple Polaroids, pictures of his parents from maybe their sophomore year of high school all the way up to their twenties, again. But the most notable thing in the entire box was a small, paper crown, decorated like it was made by a kindergartener.

"...Patton Foster: King of Smash Bro's," Joe mumbled, reading the front of the crown. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked it over a bit. Was this something his dad made when he was in elementary school? Why would he have kept it so long? It was in a box that seemed to have to do with both of Joe's parents, so how could this relate to Joe's father when Joe was pretty sure they didn't meet until high school?

Joe sighed. He pushed the box back under the dresser, keeping the crown in his hands. He blew a bit of dust off of it, and then he made his way back downstairs, seeing his dad sitting on the couch, watching TV, and gently hugging a throw pillow.

"Dad?"

"Hmm? Joe, what do you have there?"

"Uh..." Joe held it up. "I don't know? I found it in your room, I- what is it?"

Joe's dad furrowed his eyebrows. He paused the TV and got off the couch, coming closer and gently taking the crown into his hands. Upon realizing what it was he gently gasped, and then Joe gulped, realizing it was probably a bad idea to show him something that, for some reason, reminded him of his husband.

"Oh."

"...Sorry, uh-"

"No, no, it's fine, Joe," he blinked a few times, and there were tears in the corners of his eyes again. He laughed, sadly. "Hah... your- your father and I made this after I beat him multiple times playing this game we used to love... that was 12th grade. Right when I was staying over with him after we found out about..."

Joe's dad trailed off. He looked to the ground, and then he sniffled, handing the crown back to Joe.

"I'll, uh... put this back in your room."

"Thank you, Joe," he stuttered.

Time went by pretty slow after that. Joe stayed in his room most of the night, and his dad stayed downstairs on the couch, but both couldn't take their eyes off the clock. One, two, maybe three hours passed until Joe went downstairs once more to get some dinner, and that was when the phone finally rang. Joe's dad almost dropped his phone trying to answer it, out of pure nervousness for what he would hear. Joe rushed out to the living room and sat down next to his dad, the latter turning on the speaker phone.

"Hello?"

"Is this the house of Logan Croft?"

"Y- Yes, yes. Is everything alright? What's going on?"

"Everything is fine, sir. You may come pick up your... brother? However you're related to him."

"Logan? I can? He's free to go?"

"Yes."

"Oh, I- thank you so much. I'll be right there."

"Alright. Have a good night."

"You- you too."

He hung up the phone, and both him and Joe sighed out of pure relief, the former laying back and covering his mouth with his hand. He took a deep breath, Joe simply staring at him, and then he blinked and got himself off the couch.

"Alright- come on, Joe, let's go pick him up."

"Yep, definitely."

Joe's dad drove the car as fast as he could without speeding, as he didn't want himself to end up in jail for the night or anything like that.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, Joe?"

"Is this even how... this stuff is supposed to work?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, seems weird they'd just let him go home. I- I'm glad he's not being held there overnight, or at all, of course, but that just doesn't seem like how it's supposed to go."

Joe's dad sighed. "I guess that's not how the system is supposed to work, you're right. But I'm not in the mood to question it."

"Right. Yeah."

They pulled into the police station after that, and they saw Joe's father standing near the doors with an officer. Joe got out of the car but stayed by it, while his dad ran up to the station doors, hugging his husband as the police officer walked back inside. They stood there for a good minute or two, until they pulled back, intertwined their fingers, and walked over to the car. After Joe gave his father a quick hug, he got in the backseat, his dad once again driving and his father in the passenger's.

"What happened?" Joe asked as soon as the car doors had shut. His parents intertwined hands and his dad started to pull out of the station. His father sighed.

"It was odd. I just tried to remain calm and it seemed to work, they asked me where I was the night of and I did have to lie and say I was at home during that bit, but they seemed to have bought it. They said I wasn't aggressive enough to keep overnight, or- something, and that's about it."

Joe's dad sighed. "So what's gonna happen now?"

"Uhm... oh, right." He chuckled nervously. "There's a court hearing on Monday."

"What?!"

Joe and his dad stared surprised at his father, who pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, I-I know, it's very short notice and I have no idea what we're going to do. We clearly don't have time to hire anyone other than a public defender and that frightens me. It's going to be at one o'clock PM, so you and I will likely have to stay home from work again."

"What about me?" Joe asked.

"I... don't believe you'd be allowed to come. It would only be your dad that would be allowed to come."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"I know. I'm sorry."

Joe huffed, and he leaned back in his seat, covering his eyes with one hand.

"Am I going back to school Monday, then..?"

"We'll play that by ear," His dad said. "How are you feeling now?"

"Better, still. As I said, I... don't think I'm gonna do it. I don't even know if Oliver will be at school Monday, he might just skip it to avoid me."

Joe's parents sighed. His father looked out the window.

"...My mind is running blank on any more excuses I could give," he muttered. "As to how else she could've died or who could've killed her."

"There has to be something you can say," Joe's dad commented.

"There is. I just don't know what... god, I wish there was someone out there that was more skilled with dealing with this who could help me."

•~~~~•
careful what you wish for.

See ya in the next chapter!🤎
    ~Maxx(SanderShipper)